Dr. Wolf, the Fae Rift Series Book 1- Shockwave (5 page)

“Plunging a wooden stake into anyone’s heart would kill them,” Dartan pointed out.

Aleric wanted to shout at them both and laugh at the same time. They were in the middle of a complete world displacement and the same Light and Dark fae wars continued. Perhaps that sense of normalcy was what kept both of the fae creatures from focusing on the fact that they were no longer in their world.

“Can we hold a truce for a moment?” Aleric asked. “We have a few things to discuss.”

“Is that blood?” the vampire asked.

Aleric lifted the bag in his hand. The vampire’s red eyes followed it. He lowered the bag and the vampire turned his head to keep it in sight.

Aleric watched him closely. “If I give you the blood, will you work with me?”

“If you give me the blood, I’ll do anything you want,” the vampire replied.

“Make him say I’m cute!” the fairy said.

Aleric shook his head. “No, Tranquility. I’m not going to do that.” He crossed his arms. “We’re going to divide this room in half, and I need help doing it. We have another patient coming in after surgery and I don’t need to worry about Dark fae and Light fae fighting. Also, there’s a demon.”

“A demon!” both Tranquility and the vampire repeated.

“You get him,” Tranquility said.

“No, you get him,” Dartan shot back.

Aleric fought down the urge to squeeze the bag of blood until it exploded.

“He’s Dark fae. Dartan, you get him,” Aleric told the vampire.

“Ha!” the fairy said, sticking out her tongue again.

Aleric started unwrapping the extension cord.

“Uh, Wolfie, are you sure that’s a good idea?” Tranquility asked.

“If you stay in the sunlight, you’ll be fine,” Aleric replied.

He wasn’t sure that was true, especially since the sun looked as though it was nearing the end of its descent, but the fairy went back to the window next to the selkie’s bed. She crossed her arms and glared at the vampire.

One of the vampire’s arms slipped free and he clutched Aleric’s wrist just below the bag. Aleric grabbed the vampire’s hand.

“You promise you’ll help me and stop causing trouble here?” he asked.

“I promise I’ll help you,” Dartan replied.

Aleric waited, his grip on the vampire’s hand one of steel.

“And I’ll stop causing trouble,” Dartan finally said, his voice quieter.

Aleric let go and the vampire took the bag. He put it to his mouth and sucked on it eagerly as Aleric finished untying the cord.

“I can’t tell you how good this tastes,” Dartan said.

Aleric glanced at him. “What about the Armistice of Fae Equality? I thought you weren’t supposed to drink real blood.”

The vampire shook his head. “We aren’t supposed to drink
fae
blood. This blood is from a human, so it’s fine.” He grinned past the bag. “Specifics and all that.”

“You have some blood on your cheek,” Aleric told the vampire.

Dartan lifted his face from the bag to wipe the blood away.

“Did I get it?” he asked. More blood dripped from his teeth down his chin.

Aleric just shook his head. “Sure.”

He scoped out the room, studying the bare walls covered only in unpainted sheetrock and the wooden outlines of rooms that didn’t have walls. Extra sheetrock, tools, and wood sat against the far wall. He wondered how good vampires were at construction. The fairy wouldn’t be much help, that much was sure.

“What’s up, Dr. Wolf,” the vampire asked. He looked much calmer after the blood.

Aleric decided to go with honesty. “There’s a faun being prepped for surgery as we speak. I need to bring him back here for recovery, but I don’t want the smell of blood to tempt you after the sun goes down. I think dividing this room is our best bet.”

“Best bet for what?” Dartan pressed.

Aleric met his gaze. “Best bet for being able to keep you here and not turn you out into this city at night.”

He thought the vampire would be interested in the notion considering the city was filled with humans who hadn’t been taught to fear the Dark fae.

Instead, Dartan shook his head quickly. “Don’t turn me out there. This place is crazy.”

“How do you know?” Aleric asked. “You woke up in the E.R.; we could still be in Blays for all you know.”

“This isn’t Blays,” Dartan replied. “I know that for sure. This place is strange.”

“Yeah,” the fairy said. “What’s wrong with the walls and the wood? There aren’t even troll stamps on the tiles. Are they stolen? Who made the glass?”

“It all feels empty,” the vampire echoed. “Like nobody cares who made it. What kind of place doesn’t care who created the pieces that made it possible?”

Aleric was surprised it bothered them as much as it had him, yet such things were standard in their lives. The absence of them was stark in contrast.

“What’s the rest of the world like out there?” Tranquility asked with a hint of fear in her voice.

“Actually, I don’t know,” Aleric replied. “I woke up in the E.R. like you guys.”

“You mean, you’re not a doctor?” Dartan asked.

Aleric snorted. “Not at all. I’m winging it.”

Dartan gave a nod of respect. “You fooled me. That’s pretty impressive. You’d make a good doctor.”

Aleric gave a wry smile. “Like they’d let a werewolf be a doctor in Drake City. Our options are a bit limited.”

Tranquility nodded. “I don’t think Light and Hope Sanctuary even allows werewolves.”

“Maybe the Revenant Recovery would let you practice there. They’ll accept werewolves who donate blood first,” Dartan suggested.

Aleric smiled. “I’m sure that’s a condition I want when I go to work every day.”

“Perk of the job,” Dartan said.

Aleric heard footsteps coming down the hallway.

“Someone’s on their way here. Do I need to tie you up again?” he asked the vampire.

Dartan shook his head quickly. “I’ll control myself. I promise. I feel much more normal with a little blood in my stomach.”

“Do you hear him?” Tranquility asked. “With blood in his stomach. And that’s normal? Tie him up. I’ll be in charge.”

“That’s the last time I leave you in charge,” Aleric told her. “You just stay in the sunlight. I’ll be back before nightfall with a solution.”

The door opened.

“Dr. Wolf, the patient is ready for surgery.”

Aleric speared both Tranquility and Dartan with a look. “I’m trusting you. Try to give a good name to fae while I’m gone.”

“We’ll try,” Dartan promised.

“If he says I’m cute,” Tranquility said.

Aleric shook his head and followed Gregory out the door.

Chapter 5

“How are you holding up?” Aleric asked Gregory as the orderly led him down a hallway toward the operating room.

“It’s been a strange day,” Gregory replied, glancing at him. “Dr. Worthen keeps telling us to just get through it and tomorrow will be better. Do you think that’s true?”

“I hope so,” Aleric said. A hint of longing crept into his tone when he repeated it. “I hope so.”

Gregory put a hand to the door they had reached and paused. “Dr. Wolf, where do you suppose all these strange creatures came from? I heard one of the EMTs saying they thought it was a sign that we had reached the end of the world. Do you think that’s true?”

Aleric gave the orderly a closer look. They were similar in age, yet the young man seemed to be holding on for Aleric’s answer.

“Gregory, you know I’m one of those strange creatures, right?”

The orderly nodded. “I saw you turn into a wolf. Is that why they call you Doctor Wolf?”

Aleric wasn’t sure how to reply. He simply nodded and said, “I think if it was the end of the world, there’d be no reason for new creatures to appear.”

“Huh,” Gregory said. A smile crossed his face. “You know, I guess you’re right!” He pushed the door open. “Thanks, Dr. Wolf.”

Nurse Eastwick met him inside the door. “Thanks for what?” she asked, watching the orderly head back up the hall.

“I guess I just resolved his fears that the world was coming to an end,” Aleric said.

“That was big of you,” the nurse replied.

Aleric nodded. “I thought so.”

She held up a pair of green clothes. “Time to scrub up.”

“I washed my hands after using the restroom,” Aleric told her.

She shook her head. “No,
Doctor
,” she said, stressing the word. “You’re prepping for surgery with Dr. Worthen. You have to change into these scrubs and go through the sanitization procedures before you can head into the Operating Room.”

“Oh. Right.”

A few minutes later, Aleric stood just inside the door of O.R. Seven wearing green scrubs, white gloves that tickled his nose with their scent, and a green matching tie cap over his black hair. Braum was on the table hooked up to tubes and monitors. Aleric’s heart went out to him at the sight of the hospital gown. He made a mental note to warn the faun about the draft when he awoke.

Dr. Worthen and a woman stood near the table.

“Dr. Wolf, this is Dr. Indley,” Dr. Worthen introduced. “She’s the veterinarian I told you about. Marae has been so kind as to make herself available for this, uh, unusual procedure.”

Dr. Indley nodded. “When Kent told me what he was dealing with, I told him I would be glad to be a part of it.” She smiled at Aleric. “I’m a bit of a sucker for strange cases. Curiosity may get the best of me. Is that what brought you here?”

Caught off-guard, Aleric nodded. “Oh, definitely. Curiosity killed the werepanther and all that. I’m always interested in the unusual. Today’s been one for the books.”

“Have you had other cases like this?” Dr. Indley asked.

Behind her, Dr. Worthen waved his hands and shook his head.

“Uh, oh, no. Not really,” Aleric said quickly. “You know. Each case is unusual in its own way.”

“Very true,” Dr. Indley replied. “It’s good to see the uniqueness of every situation. With the animals, it helps me remember to treat them as individuals without voices instead of just as someone else’s pets.”

“That’s a good way of looking at it,” Aleric replied as if he knew exactly what she meant. He hoped she bought it.

Apparently satisfied in his answer, the veterinarian turned back to Dr. Worthen. “Consider me ready when you are, Doctor.”

Dr. Worthen gave Aleric a searching look. “Would you like to assist, Dr. Wolf?”

Aleric crossed his arms and leaned against the wall. “I’m just supervising,” he said. “Carry on.”

Dr. Worthen gave a snort that might have been laughter before turning to the patient. He pulled the sheet back to reveal the broken leg.

“Oh my word,” Dr. Indley exclaimed. “When you said a goat leg, I thought you meant figuratively. This is an actual goat leg.”

Dr. Worthen nodded. “It’s something that requires an explanation, to be sure, but it’ll have to wait until our patient’s needs are met and he awakens.”

“Yes, Doctor,” Dr. Indley said. She took a breath and gave him a composed nod. “I’m ready to begin.”

Aleric watched the surgery with a growing pit in his stomach. He was definitely out of his element. After the initial shock, Dr. Worthen and Dr. Indley handled the operation as though they had performed many such procedures. By the time they were finished, Aleric realized just how much out of water he was in pretending to be a doctor.

“Fifteen screws and two plates seems like a lot,” Aleric said to Nurse Eastwick as they pushed the bed toward the D Wing.

“Pretty standard, given that he broke both bones. The hardware holds the bone pieces together while they heal. According to Dr. Indley, he should be just fine,” she replied.

Aleric pushed the double doors open. He pulled the bed halfway through and halted.

“What happened?” he asked, staring at the two doorways in front of him where a wide-open room had been before.

“We remodeled,” Dartan replied. He stood in the right-hand doorway with his arms folded. A pleased expression showed on his face at Aleric’s reaction. White dust from the sheetrock made a streak in the vampire’s dark hair.

“Wow,” Nurse Eastwick said. “This wing has been under construction for six months because we lost funding. You did all this in a few hours?”

Tranquility grinned from the other doorway. “Vampires are strong and fairies are fast. We may have raided a few rooms for supplies, but I’m happy with it.”

The doorway Aleric stood in entered the middle of the D Wing. The fae creatures had formed a wall a few feet past the door so that they took either the left side which was penned in glowing paint that read ‘Light’ or the right side which bore the sketched word ‘Dark’.

“Is that glitter?” Aleric asked, surveying the fairy’s handiwork.

She nodded proudly. “Yes, Dr. Wolf. I wanted to do Dartan’s sign in glitter as well, but he said he would drink my blood for dinner if I so much as glittered a speck of it.”

At Aleric’s questioning look, Dartan shrugged. “She listened, so she’s still alive. We’re getting better at communication.”

“Are those our old phototherapy lights from the prenatal unit?” Nurse Eastwick asked.

Aleric followed her gaze to the blue lights suspended above the Light fae doorway.

Tranquility nodded. “I found them in a storage room. Dartan was so kind as to test them for me.”

“She chased me around the room with one,” Dartan replied in an annoyed tone. “She wasn’t satisfied until it actually burned my skin.”

He held out his arm to show the angry red burns along it.

“I had to be sure,” the fairy replied. “At least now we have a vampire deterrent for nightfall.”

“That’s actually quite brilliant,” Aleric said. He pushed the bed through to the Light room.

“I heard that,” Dartan called from the other side.

Nurse Eastwick helped Aleric hook up the monitoring equipment in one of the smaller individual rooms along the side.

“Keep an eye on his blood pressure and heart rate,” she explained, pointing to several numbers. “An alarm will chime if his respiratory rate falls or temperature rises.”

“What happens if his temperature rises too high?” he asked.

“It can affect his brain and organ function,” she replied. At Aleric’s wide-eyed look, she said, “I’ll come to check on him. Don’t worry.” She paused, then said, “We should probably go get the demon. The sooner we get him out of the E.R., the better.”

Aleric followed her up the hallway.

“What about Braum’s bandages?” he asked.

“I’ll take care of changing those, also,” she told him. She glanced at Aleric and a smile touched her lips. She stopped and when he paused beside her, she put a hand on his cheek in a motherly gesture. “I know you’re feeling inadequate to handle this situation, but you’re doing a good job.”

“I’m not really doing anything,” he replied.

She motioned back the way they had come. “Without you, there’d be a dead fairy in our Emergency Room, our patients would’ve had their blood sucked out by the vampire, and both Dr. Worthen and I would have been crushed to death by the demon. I think you’re doing alright.”

Aleric allowed himself a half-smile. “It has been a busy day.”

She glanced at him. “When was the last time you ate? I’m sure Nurse Tarli is about to run to Minnow’s for Dr. Worthen’s standard dinner; I can have her pick up something for you as well.”

“You don’t have to do that,” Aleric said.

The nurse gave him a kind smile. “If we don’t take care of our doctors, they can’t take care of our patients, then the whole place falls apart.”

That brought an answering smile to Aleric’s face. “Food would be great. I think my stomach is about to eat itself.”

“I’d say that was a fae thing,” Nurse Eastwick said, “But my son just moved out of the house; it’s amazing how much he could eat in one day. You appear close to his age. You’re what, in your early twenties?”

“Something like that,” Aleric replied noncommittally.

“Something like that?” she repeated. “You mean you don’t know for sure?”

Aleric raised a shoulder and kept his tone light. “I mean for a family of werewolves, mine wasn’t very attached to me. I was booted out when I was four.”

He could feel the nurse’s stare. “They kicked you out? What did you do to survive?”

Aleric pushed open the doors to the E.R. before he glanced at her. “Ran away to live on the streets of Blays. Fortunately for me, I had the advantage of being able to scrounge in wolf form. Scrawny wolf pups get better scraps than the Dark fae orphans.”

He forced a smile and turned away to prevent more questions he didn’t want to answer.

“Is this the room?” he asked.

He pushed aside a curtain and found himself looking at an older woman holding her arm to her chest.

“Are you my doctor?” she asked. She moved the bandages she clutched to show him deep scratches along her forearm that bled.

“Your patient is this way, Dr. Wolf,” Nurse Eastwick said from behind him.

“My apologies,” Aleric told the woman. “Your doctor will be along shortly.”

He let the curtain fall shut. Something about the scratches nagged at his mind.

“What happened to her?”

“That’s Mrs. Miller. She said one of her dogs attacked her this morning. She’s always taking in strays. We’ve treated her before for bites.”

“You know those look more like demon claws than a dog attack, right?” Aleric said.

Nurse Eastwick glanced behind her at the closed curtain. “I didn’t think of that. Until today, it hasn’t been something we usually consider.”

“You might want to start considering it,” Aleric suggested. “There’s a possibility we’ll need to start tracking down Fae that are attacking humans here. Do you know anyone we can trust?”

Nurse Eastwick was quiet for a moment with her hand on the curtain to the demon’s room. “Let me think about it for a moment. Things are starting to get complicated.”

She pulled the curtain aside. The demon stared at them both with its angry glowing eyes. The straps holding its arms to the bars looked paltry considering the bulk it had shown before.

“It’s awake,” the nurse whispered.

“Of course I’m awake,” the demon replied.

A chill ran down Aleric’s spine at its pointed teeth and the rolling bass of its words.

He shoved aside the fear and stepped into the room. “You attacked the head physician, nurses, and orderlies of this hospital. Are you aware of how many lives you put at risk?”

“Are you aware that I don’t care in the least about the lives of humans?” the demon replied. He tensed his arms.

“Break those bands and I’ll choke you out in two seconds,” Aleric threatened.

The surety in his voice made the demon pause. He studied Aleric, his glowing gaze intense.

“What do you intend to do with me here, werewolf?” he asked.

Aleric didn’t question how the demon had guessed his werewolf lineage. Instead, he said, “You’re a danger to the humans of Edge City. Until we figure out how to get you and the other fae back to Blays, I can’t let you leave this hospital.”

“You’ve seen what I can do in this hospital,” the demon replied.

Aleric’s instincts screamed for him to turn tail and run away instead of challenge the demon. Instead, he crossed his arms and glared down at the Dark fae.

“This is my hospital. If you injure anyone here, I will make you wish you’d never set foot in Edge City, understand?”

The tension in the room increased with the minutes the demon waited to reply. He studied Aleric from his feet to the top of his head. Aleric was suddenly aware that he still wore the scrubs from the operating room. At the very least, he appeared more like a doctor.